LAWMAKERS APPROVE FELON VOTING RIGHTS BILL

MONTGOMERY - State lawmakers gave their final approval Wednesday to a
bill making it easier for some felons to regain the right to vote.

"If you've served your time, then I think you ought to get your
voting privileges back," said the Senate sponsor, Sen. E.B. McClain,
D-Midfield.

The bill also would expand the state Parole Board so it could give
early releases to an extra 5,000 state inmates in the coming year to
ease prison crowding.

The Senate voted 21-11 for the bill after less than an hour's debate.
Gov. Bob Riley asked his fellow Republicans in the Senate not to delay
the bill, said Sen. Steve French, R-Mountain Brook.

Riley will sign the bill into law, said David Azbell, his press
secretary. The state House of Representatives voted 47-42 for the bill
on Monday.

The felons' voting section of the bill is similar to a felons' voting
bill that lawmakers passed in June but that Riley killed with a veto.
His veto spurred protests by black lawmakers and civil rights groups.

Sen. Larry Dixon, R-Montgomery, and others protested that people
convicted of robbery, kidnapping and many other violent crimes could
regain the right to vote under the bill approved Wednesday.

"I would ask the members of the Senate to vote their conscience. If
they can vote to give restoration of voting rights to people who have
injured others in the commission of a felony, then that's their own
business," Dixon said. "I for one can't do that."

Dixon proposed rewriting the bill to exclude anyone convicted of a
violent crime if any person was injured during the crime.

The Senate voted 16-14 to reject Dixon's amendment.

Sen. Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe, said he favored the idea, but feared that
rewriting the bill could kill it if the House refused to go along with
the change.

Barron pledged to work with Dixon, after the bill becomes law, to
amend it to exclude violent felons who harmed people in their crimes.
The Legislature's 2004 regular session starts in February. The current
special session likely will end by next week.

McClain said he would be open to revising the felon voting plan next
year to correct "any flaws it may have that we may not have thought
about."

The bill would require the Parole Board to give a "certificate of
eligibility to register to vote" to a felon who:

Had completed his or her sentence or been pardoned.

Had no pending felony charges against him or her.

Had paid all fines, court costs, fees and victim restitution ordered
by the sentencing court.

Had not been impeached or convicted of murder, rape, sodomy, sexual
abuse, incest, sexual torture, treason, any of several crimes
involving child sexual abuse or any of several crimes involving
obscene material.

Parole Board officials could refuse to give a felon a certificate only
if they determined that he or she had not met all those requirements.
A county voting official would have to allow a felon with a
certificate to register to vote.

The bill also would expand the state Parole Board from three to seven
members and create a second three-member panel to review requests from
state inmates for parole. The expansion would last three years only.

Riley wants an expanded board in the coming year to release an extra
5,000 inmates convicted of non-violent crimes such as burglary and
drug dealing.

Riley says such a release may be the only affordable way to ease
prison crowding enough to keep a federal judge from taking control of
Alabama's 28,000-inmate prison system and possibly ordering
more-expensive changes.

"This bill is necessary for the state to comply with court orders
mandating that we reduce our prison population," said Azbell, the
governor's spokesman.

People lose the right to vote when convicted of a felony. For years,
people have been able to regain their voting rights only if pardoned
by the Parole Board. But the board has a waiting list of 3,000 people
who have completed their sentences and hope to win a pardon.

Each review of a pardon request takes an average of four hours'
work.

Azbell said the current bill would let Parole Board officials spend
more time reviewing inmates for parole and easing prison crowding
rather than reviewing pardon applications.